It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Either “The Diving Bell” or “Juno” will be dropped to make way for “Into the Way.” I’m thinking “The Diving Bell” stays in, but it could really go either way.
And by “Into the Way,” I clearly meant “Into the Wild,” although I sort of like my typo title better.
I’m buying something drops out, but I bet “Atonement” is the other nominee (it’s the Olivia De Havilland/Ernest Borgnine factor).
Hmm…you all must be industry people, because if you ask the average man on the street if he’s seen any of those above named movies, 9 out of 10 will say no.
“The Diving What?”
Flip “Atonement” with “Diving Bell and Butterfly” and that’s my prediction.
But I think the DGA noms are exact and you’ll see Schnubel make it, but not Wright.
Chicago48, isn’t that great? I love the fact that the Academy Awards still have the courage to nominate deserving pictures that nobody on the street has heard of.
The day the Academy Awards becomes the People’s Choice Awards is the day I stop caring.
I’m no industry person, but for the sake of argument, what 5 popular films would you nominate that everyone has heard of?
Bourne Ultimatum would be a given for me. Superbad. Knocked Up.
Other than that, quality “big” pictures are slim to none.
God forbid we ever have an awards ceremony that isn’t the Razzies that celebrates the following as pristine pictures (entertaining or not):
Transformers
Spider-man 3
National Treasure 2
I Am Legend
Pirates 3
No thanks. I’ll stick with the PGA’s list for now – with the exception of the overrated Juno.
The Academy never changed, the viewing public did.
Ok, how about
The Simpsons Movie
The Host
Superbad
I Am Legend
The Dark Knight IMAX preview (best short).
The viewing public did most of the changing, but on the other hand I think there is a lesser-but-opposite reaction on the part of Academy. How else to explain the reluctance to nominate those few crowd-pleasers that are also quality films? I’d have loved to have seen Batman Begins nominated. But The Sixth Sense found its way in, and LotR made it thrice over.
The PGA really screws up my Oscar predictions — or, perhaps more accurately, fails to clarify them. Before, I didn’t think Diving Bell would make it as a Picture nom, just as a Director nom. So is it Into the Wild (showing surprising guild support) or Atonement (Oscar baity, with its backlash not truly beginning until most of the Oscar ballots were in) to fill the remaining slot? The PGA might have reflected an edge of support one way or the other, but instead it favored neither and strengthened Diving Bell, leading one to wonder if it is supported enough to make the Picture list despite being in a foreign language. Being ineligible for Best Foreign Language Film might actually help its chances, leaving its supporters with one less avenue to champion it.
Additionally, the DGA, strangely enough, aligns more closely with Oscar’s Best Picture list than its Best Director list. When surprise foreign language nominees show up in Oscar’s Best Director nominations, as they are wont to do, they tend to be unheralded by the DGA. So does this also suggest Diving Bell will overcome and land a Best Picture nomination?
It is hard to imagine the PGA matching 5 for 5, but it’s faulty reasoning to presume it won’t, just because it seldom ever has. It’s like presuming the next coin flip will be tails, because the previous 10 were heads. The odds remain the roughly the same, swung this way or that only by the movies in play and the overlap of appeal between the producers guild and the Academy. Historically, they overlap about 80%. But past performance is not indicative of future returns, as they say in investments. The top 5 just might be the top 5.
All the same, I think I’ll go for the DGA list matching up with Oscar’s Director nominees, while the PGA goes 4 for 5, with Into the Wild claiming Diving Bell’s spot.
Juno out, INTO THE WILD in.
Think the line up looks something like this:
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY
INTO THE WILD
MICHAEL CLAYTON
Only two guilds thought well enough of ATONEMENT to nominate it – the ASC and the ADG. No WGA, no DGA, no SAG, no PGA — doesn’t bode well for it and, frankly, I don’t disagree on the best picture side (though the first 40 minutes were gorgeous, it falls apart after McAvoy is arrested). Gangster is just okay and if they get in they are stealing a slot with ad buys. And Sweeney Todd, never going to happen though Tom O’Neil may be disappointed, I don’t think many others will be.